Finding Contentment

The challenge

I had decided it was the perfect idea. Pick up the family, move to a farm in the mountains and never look at a city again.

When that didn’t fly with hubby, I changed tactics. We would do what we could to live a simple, “country” life here in the city. Little did I know that millions of people all over the world had the same idea, and the idea had actually become something of a movement.

According to the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the movement is called homesteading. It was when I started looking on the Internet for ideas on how to simplify our lives that I noticed the word homesteading kept popping up again and again.

Loosely defined in today’s terms, homesteading is the act of living a simple life of self-sufficiency. It’s what our forbearers did for centuries.

Here’s what Wikipedia had to say:  “Currently the term homesteading applies to anyone who is part of the back to the land movement and who chooses to live a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle… A new movement, called urban homesteading, can be viewed as a simple living lifestyle, incorporating small-scale agriculture, sustainable and permaculture gardening, and home food production and storage into suburban or city living.”

Perfect! Here on our “urban homestead,” our family of five will attempt to slowly but surely learn to live a simpler, more self-sustainable lifestyle. We don’t plan to become tree huggers or join Greenpeace, what we do plan on doing is learning – step by step – to live like our grandparents did. To stop relying on movie rentals, the mall and last minute runs to the grocery store to survive.

We will learn to live frugally and simply. We will stop paying others to do things for us and will instead learn to do for ourselves.

We plan to grow our own vegetables, make our own cleaning supplies and learn to cook from scratch. We plan to teach our children the value of hard work and God’s creations instead of the value of the latest video game. We plan to focus on our family instead of the world around us.

It’s a journey that I am sure will be full of sweat and tears. But I am also sure that if we persevere with the slow, and probably sometimes painful, process of simplifying our life we will feel a sense of accomplishment like we have never felt before. 

The process will be painful because we, like most young families today, are used to convenience. We are used to having everything done for us if we just put a certain amount of time into the corporate world each day. We are used to having someone else teach our children, cook our food and tell us what we should spend our hard-earned money on.

If you are thinking full-fledged homesteading may not be for you, listen to yourself. As I learned from my first mistaken idea, homesteading isn’t about moving to the country. It can be done in the 3-bedroom house and 1/3 acre we live on, and it can even be done in a city apartment. We don’t aim to never have to buy anything again, but to slowly reduce our dependence on mass-produced items.

The great thing about homesteading, especially urban homesteading, is that you don’t have to “go all the way.” Homesteading works best when you start small. Get into the spirit and then decide if you want to continue working through these small steps. Pick and choose the ideas that fit your own interests and lifestyle. You have the option of sticking a toe in to test the water or jumping in with both feet.

While homesteading does involve some research, it is also very much a “learn as you go” process. Give it a try with us. Together, we can become more secure in our own ability to be ourselves and provide for our families.

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01:09 AM, Monday, March 12, 2007 .. Posted by crewchief

Welcome to Homesteadblogger! I just posted about the same time you did. I am adjusting to urban homesteading after jumping in a little too quickly to country homesteading. We can learn together. :)

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09:36 AM, Monday, March 12, 2007 .. Posted by findingcontentment

Great! I love classmates! Especially one who lives across the country in Alaska! I don't think we could be any farther away from you (North Carolina).

Edited by findingcontentment on Monday, March 12, 2007 at 10:30 AM

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12:43 PM, Monday, March 12, 2007 .. Posted by Keeblur

Great post! Welcome to Homestead Blogger. We're in a place right now where we can't have a garden or animals, but there's still a lot we can learn and do. I look forward to reading more of your blog.
Vicki

Welcome!!

03:34 PM, Monday, March 12, 2007 .. Posted by Patti

Welcome!! I hope you enjoy blogging here. I have "met" some neat people through being here.

Like you, I am a homesteader in heart. I describe where I live as the quickly-disappearing rural outskirts of a medium city (80,000), which is on the outskirts of a quickly-growing, soon-to-be-large city (Boise, Idaho 200,000). We live in a subdivision and have lots of CCRs. But we do have a half acre lot with 19 mature fruit trees. We can have a vegetable garden. I can hang my laundry outside. I can bake bread from scratch. I can stay home more and be busy about home-centered things. I have chosen to bloom where I am planted and to be content where I am because this is what the Lord has given me.

Blessings,
Patti

Hi

04:56 PM, Saturday, March 17, 2007 .. Posted by UnlikelyHomesteader

I actually found you via the Homeschool Homestead Yahoo group. It's always nice to see our bloggers out and about in the other groups too. :o)

You've got a great story. I look forward to reading more of it.
Blessings,
~Nancy
HomesteadBlogger Senior Editor

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06:32 PM, Saturday, March 17, 2007 .. Posted by findingcontentment

Thanks, Nancy. I really enjoy reading that group's posts.

Melissa D. SC

08:48 AM, Friday, September 7, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

You have inspired me to look more into this, I am reading through your back posts today to help me get started and to find out what others do to ease into this different type of lifestyle.

God Bless~~
Melissa D. SC